A/N The final encounter! Thanks to Someone_2_lost for the awesome cover! Thanks all for reading!

Evan shook his head slowly, "scheming women, hey?" He drank in her smile, her wide happy eyes, her glowing face and it gave him great pleasure.

Maddie smiled meekly, "I kind of felt I needed an in. I didn’t deserve to just walk in and expect you to speak to me, Adele asked me to bring the flowers..."

He was still staring at her, not knowing what this all meant, but so happy to just see her. “You are always welcome in my life Maddie, you know that, anytime.”

                “L’Homme Nouveau? The New Man?” There were tears in her eyes as she stared around the room, “I love what you’ve done.”

He smiled nervously, “finishing this project, hell if I hadn’t met you I may never have started it. It’s all made me a new man...then there’s your name of course, it was a silent homage to you. If you hadn’t pushed me I’d never have done this, never have had the confidence to start, you know?”

She nodded, “it’s brilliant here, I’m so happy for you. And you open tonight?”

Grimacing he hated acknowledging the nerves that grumbled in his stomach at the thought, “I can’t remember being this nervous ever before!”

Smiling Maddie turned back from studying the room to look at him again, “that’s because this is so special to you. Important things make you more involved as you have more to lose.”

He sighed, he’d lost so much recently, this was all still so surreal.

                “You paid my rent...”

His head snapped up at her words, “I wanted you to have the chance to recover; it was something small, really.”

She shook her head, “no, it was very generous; I understand I’ve been fully paid during my absence too...that wasn’t in my contract.”

                “Maddie, you’ve been injured, you couldn’t work...”

Smiling she tilted her head to the side and studied him, “you are a very kind man, I’m lucky to have ever met you.”

He shrugged, a little embarrassed at her attention, “you look amazing...healthy." In reality she was more than that, her eyes were glowing, as was her skin, her hair.  It was a stark contrast to the last time he saw her, pale and lank in her hospital bed.

She nodded, "I am good, I still need crutches, but the bones are healing." She limped to the nearest chair and sat down. He pulled out the chair next to her, turned it around, then sat resting his elbows on the seat back, his eyes not leaving hers.

                “That’s great news; I mean you’re walking well.”

Nodding she continued, “But the bones or the working were never really the issue Evan, I know that. I really need to explain things to you."

Reaching out he squeezed her hand, and they both flinched at the sizzle that the touch brought, "you don’t have to explain anything to me."

                "But I do!" she took a deep breath, trying not to melt into his warm eyes. “I have lived in fear for years, and to be honest you I don’t know what exactly I was scared of, no one could hurt me more than I was already hurt. But I thought I could manage, compartmentalise, ignore things. That night, the one of the accident I was desperate to tell you that I wanted to move in, that you were right. But then Jake was there. I don’t know why. He told my family that I pestered his work to find him, but that’s another lie. I just turned a corner and he was there, and I was petrified. I was immediately back in my teens and I didn’t know what to do, so I was back to running away...again.”

Evan smiled, “you do have a habit of doing that.”

She was glad he could smile about it, but she really had been horrendously immature in dealing with things, “he personified everything I’d fought to accept, I mean I didn’t miss my family, not really, but I missed being part of a family. Missed belonging somewhere. But I knew that. I accepted that, but not the baby...” She hated that she still filled up with tears when she talked about that time, that she felt choked, “and all that happened after as I’d not allowed myself to think about it.”

                “You should have seen me in there, Dr Michaels was awesome, but I was like a child, I’m not proud of that. It took a long time, but he made me realise that none of this is my fault, I mean it’s kind of my fault that I didn’t cope with the truth...but none of that was my fault.”

She looked at him again, “I’m babbling again.”

He waved a hand to dismiss that protest, “no, I’m loving hearing you speak.”

                “So we spent a long time working through everything, what happened, why or happened, how it changed me.” She exhaled deeply, “sorry, I’m finding it hard to keep on track.”

He laughed, he was struggling to follow her, not because she was zigzagging through her story, but because he could smell her perfume, and it was making him more and more giddy.

                “So, where was I? Well after weeks of group therapy...not that I joined in that, and sessions with Dr Michaels, I started to grasp that I was controlling my life, and everyone else who came into it. I mean, I was judging everyone by my family’s standards. And then my parents came to visit...”

He ignored the flash of pain that jarred through him at the knowledge that she’d not blocked every visitor, he was still proud of her for confronting her demons. “Wow! How did that go?”

She sighed, “I didn’t want them there, but it was my final test of sorts, I had to face them, you know? Well, they arrived, looking dreadful I must add, and they were wallowing in their own self pity. It was then that the final piece of the puzzle fell into place. I’d spent all these years thinking I craved my parents’ love, but I didn’t. I’ve got friends who love me, they are my family. I don’t need a woman who has absolutely no maternal love for me in my life.”

Evan was looking bewildered, so she added, “this was a huge revelation...the reason I’ve got this far is because of you, your trust, belief, your love Evan! And I still turned away when things got hard, as I don’t think I could believe that you could love me, because no one else ever had. I didn’t want to get hurt."

She cupped his cheek, "but you are so strong, so caring...and I hurt you instead. And I’m so sorry for that."
He pressed his face into her hand, desperate for any contact with her, "I’ve missed you so much, but you needed to sort things Maddie. Even if you don’t want me anymore, you needed to get past all this."
                “Not want you anymore?” She took his face in her hands, “Aren’t you listening to me? I’ll always want you Evan Tate; I just never thought I deserved you, that I was good enough for you. But last week with my parents I sat in front of them, and I realised that I didn’t need or want them, it was you I was desperate to make up with."

He sat back looking at her, "really?"

He looked so vulnerable that she realised just how worried he’d been, and how much doubt she’d brought to him, "I’m sorry I was elusive, and so negative, that I pushed you away, and I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you sooner that I couldn’t have children, the thought of seeing or hearing your disappointment, it was easier to push you away. How do you feel about that?”

                "What about having kids?" He shrugged, “it's probably a lot more important a factor to you than me. I just want you. I've never thought about children specifically, I mean it kind of is natural to most people, I’m not desperate to have them, but I’m not dead set against them either. And anyway, there are always other lots of other options, adoption, surrogacy, IVF if that’s what you want. I presume you were tested years ago, things change, we'll get the best tests money can buy. At the end of the day, ONE doctor told you this, and it was years ago."

There were tears in her eyes as she threw her arms around his neck, an awkward action from their respective seats.

                “Evan, you always say the perfect thing, I don’t know what I did to deserve you. I love you, I can’t live without you, I just hope that you can forgive me for everything I’ve put you through."

He turned his seat, and pulled her astride his knees, a much easier position, "Madeline Newman, you drive me insane with how much I want you in my life! Promise me you’ll NEVER run away again. OK?"

Without further hesitation or distraction, he pulled her lips to his, and it was all that they’d both missed. Maddie could barely breathe for her racing heart, pounding in her chest, her arms were trembling with nerves, and her whole body tuned in to the persuasive and dominating action of his lips on hers. As she met every nip, every taste with fervour, they both tried to control the pent up frustration and passion that had lain dormant in both of them for weeks. And for Maddie it was her coming home, THIS is what she wanted, this is what she’d needed for years.

His hands pulled her closer against his body, his lips teased hers and their tongues duelled. When they eventually parted lips, foreheads and noses touching, eyes locked, they were both breathless.

                “I love you,” she breathed, her voice a rasp, her body like jelly, “and I’m so sorry for all that I’ve put you through. I promise I’ll be honest, open from now on, ok?”

It was music to his ears, “I get that in writing? With a clause NO more running?” When she scowled he added, “I love you, I need you...I want you.”

Her eyes glittered as she smiled at him, finally knowing contentment for the first time in ages, "how much?"
He pulled back to look at her confused, “how much what?”, then he broke into a grin as she started to lift her t-shirt. "Here?"

His eyes rounded in surprise as she nodded. "Now?"

She nodded again, as she pulled the t-shirt off, and threw it on the floor, "you chicken?"

With that, he stood with her still wrapped around him, and made for the office in long purposeful strides. With a sweep of his spare hand, he cleared the desk of phone, books, and a variety of stationary, that all hit the floor in a clatter. And that was greeted by giggles from Maddie as eh draped her on the desk.

Within seconds he had stripped her naked and she lay draped across his desk in the most provocative way she could as she watched him fumble with his trousers, drag his t-shirt over his head. She was desperate for the feel of her hands on him, her body against his, her nipples that were hardening under his gaze, teasing his own. With a groan, he pulled her up so that her lips found his, his hands took time to touch her, to feel her. She wrapped her legs around him, pulling their bodies closer until he could resist her no longer. When he finally entered her he sighed, a life changing moment was filed in his brain, and looking down at her face, he knew that this was forever. This was what he’d waited all his life for.

Maddie studied him, trying to record every inch of him in her long term memory, because if she never had the chance to be with Evan again she wanted this moment to last forever. But this wasn’t the end of something; this was the beginning, the start of the rest of her life, her life with the man she loved. With a gasp her pleasure exploded around her and it was his rapturous face that was her last thought before she closed her eyes, surrendering to the moment.